Where's the Money? 2008 Top 10 and Bottom 10 Automotive Repair Dollars

Posted 4/1/2009
By Jon E. Vance

This month's Stat Corner looks at vehicle year/make/models (YMMs) that were repaired or serviced last year. Jobs between Jan. 1, 2008, to Dec. 31, 2008, were ranked by average repair order (RO) dollars - Top 10 and Bottom 10. A minimum of a 250-job threshold filtered out low-frequency repair occurrences from the analysis.

The vehicles generating the greatest average repair order are between eight and 10 years old and produce average RO dollars from $524 (2001 Audi TT) to $445 (1997 GMC Savana).

The typical part/labor ratio showed that parts were the majority of the total cost. No news there, but rank No. 3, the 2000 Land Rover Discovery, bucks this trend with a slightly higher labor proportion. This indicates it takes a lot of time to work on this vehicle model.

Also interesting is that rank No. 4, the 2004 Dodge Sprinter, has a relatively low proportion of the average repair cost as labor. This means a pretty expensive part needs to be put on this vehicle, but it's moderately easy to do.

At the other end, new cars - not surprisingly - generated the lowest average RO. So when the 2008 Chevrolet Aveo rolls in with an average RO of $59, remember that it will bring you good money in 2018.

Stat Corner is written by Jon E. Vance, PMP, project manager with Mitchell 1. Mitchell 1 is a longtime associate member of ASA as well as a sponsored benefit provider. These charts and more KPI information is available free on ShopMeter, an ASA benefit powered by Mitchell 1.